As I read last week’s article about the medical marijuana dispensary hours of operation, I noted the section where the town’s mayor appeared to conveniently distort information about the age of patients receiving treatment at dispensaries and present them as “facts.”

From my experience at some Town Council meetings, the mayor’s misleading presentation of information happened before. At a council meeting back in June 2012 the mayor was on a crusade to lower the town’s support of a major cultural attraction, the Fountain Hills Theater (FHT). Fortunately for the town, the rest of the council did not support the mayor’s misguided crusade.

At that June meeting, the mayor flashed up slides showing the cost of certain productions at FHT (this was done after the public comment session so no one could speak as to the appropriateness of the slides that were shown).

The mayor’s presentation pointed out that the amount of salaries allocated to these productions was not well supported by ticket sales. Her point was that the town was subsidizing money-losing productions. (It is my understanding that the town has agreed in the past to underwrite a portion of the FHT operations – something that is critical to many artistic endeavors across the country.)

What the mayor did not point out was that her selections of the productions on the slides were Youth Theater productions. One can reasonably assume the Youth Theater (an excellent program) could have some difficulty drawing the size of the audiences equal to other productions.

This is another case where the mayor used information to present a distorted and misleading position. Have there been more such distortions? When will some public officials present balanced and accurate information to constituents or are we truly living in their Fox News paradise?